By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
The dynamic duo of Lorenzo Brown and John Brown III worked its magic to push Unics Kazan to a 67 – 76 road win over Zalgiris Kaunas. Unics went back to the winning track after three straight losses, while bottom-placed Zalgiris suffered its eighth consecutive defeat.
Lorenzo Brown finished with 19 points plus 11 assists and hit a 3-pointer that pushed Zalgiris back when the hosts cut a 13-point deficit to seven with 3:28 to play, just to set an alarm off on Unics’ camp. John Brown had 15 points, 11 rebounds and five steals.
“We’ve just got to come out physical,” John Brown said. “We understand that every time a team comes out physical on us, first we tend to back off. So physicality was the main point, and sharing the ball, doing what we do best and getting out on the run. There were scary moments [in the second half]. We got out of whack defensively and in transition, but it was a very crucial win for us and a good thing our guys responded the way they did. [Lorenzo Brown and I] don’t go out to try to know what we’re going to do, we just go out and do it. And whatever results occur, it just happens.”
Edgaras Ulanovas (16 points, seven rebounds) and Lukas Lekavicius (14 points) scored in double figures for Zalgiris. Their team came back from down 12 in the first half to make it a one-point game in the third quarter but fell behind by double figures again early in the fourth period.
“Our coach has been preaching us to sit down and defend on guards,” Lorenzo Brown said. “We had a very quick point guard [Lukas Lekavicius] out there tonight, so we were just trying to maintain him and stop them from scoring. I’m just happy to be doing what I’m doing right now.”
While Zalgiris shot the ball much better than Unics, the latter took advantage of their rebounding superiority (15 – 8 offensive boards) to produce 21 second-chance points. They also took advantage of Zalgiris’ mistakes by scoring 17 points off turnovers.
“We try, it’s frustrating, a loss again at home,” Zalgiris coach Jure Zdovc said. “Again, we made too many mistakes. We will watch the game and try to analyze it. Congratulations to UNICS.”
A defensive performance to be proud of
Unics coach Velimir Perasovic emphasized on how his players shut down their opponents after the break in order to get the win
“They only scored 28 points in the second half and our defense was more concentrated,” Perasovic said. “Defense must be the priority and today I’m happy. Except the first quarter, our defense was very good. Victories are always very important. When you lose, even playing good, it’s not good. We are still in the race for the playoffs. We played some very tough games at the start of the second round, and now we need to not miss at home and win sometimes away.”